Wednesday, 20 July 2016

Bendy Bag

After my sewing session with Diane last week, I've had the urge to make something. Online, I found this pattern for a 'Bendy Bag' designed by Joan Hawley of 'Lazy Girl Knits'. It's also one of three projects in her Craftsy class.

I was intrigued but only enough to purchase the pattern, rather than the class.

The instructions for the Bendy Bag were very clear with lots of diagrams and photos. Ideally, the fabric shouldn't really be directional as the pattern is turned 90 degrees. Only 2 coordinating fat quarters are required plus fusible batting.

I selected the fabrics from my fat quarter stash. It didn't take very long to make the bag.

The inside seams are finished by zigzag stitching over the raw edges.

The pattern calls for a 14" zipper. Only 9" of it are used for the actual zipper. 2" of it are buried under a zipper casing. Where, in my opinion, a half inch would have been adequate. I only had a 12" zipper so that is what I used. I just made the tab part a little bit smaller and had to be very careful not to sew over the metal stopper at the end of the zipper.

The 3" that are cut off are used for a zipper tab. However, anything could have been used for the tab - a double folded square of fabric? A length of ribbon?

If I were to make this again, I'd also add a tab to the bottom of the zipper as there's nothing to hold on to for closing the bag. The result is a puffy, asymmetrical bag that measures about 7" x 7".

The asymmetry is achieved by cutting pieces off the original folded rectangle and 'bending' and seaming it in a different direction.

The cut off pieces were quite large which seemed to me to be a waste of two padded, lined, triangles.

I don't like wasting fabric nor having a lot of good bits left over from projects. Unless I really wanted to make another quirky, zipped bag, I probably wouldn't make this pattern again.